Airbnb launches new flexible payment option

Following on its announcement in November to allow guests to easily split payments, Airbnb has now introduced its new ‘Pay Less Up Front’ flexible payment option.

Up until now, Airbnb guests paid for 100% of the trip at the time of booking, however, with the Pay Less Up Front option, guests can now pay for part of the trip at the time of booking – a 50% deposit in most cases – and pay the rest closer to the check-in date.

In a statement Airbnb said that new feature extends its commitment to provide flexible payment options to more guests, and greater opportunities for hosts. In its testing of Pay Less Up Front, Airbnb said that it saw a clear demand for more convenient payments: Given the option of paying less up front, 40% of guests chose to do so, and opted for higher-value bookings on the whole.

“Pay Less Up Front helps our hosts as well. Given the ability to pay in installments, hosts won’t lose out on bookings from cash flow-sensitive guests who prefer not to pay the entire amount up front. What’s more, we’ve found that Pay Less Up Front encourages bookings further in advance: Compared with ordinary bookings, the Pay Less Up Front payment option led to bookings with nearly double the lead time, helping hosts to secure and manage bookings more easily,” Airbnb said in a statement.

The new payment option is available with immediate effect across all platforms: iOS, Android, mobile-web and desktop.

Jeanette Phillips joined the team in 2016. She developed a passion and love for all things-travel related in her role as travel journalist, a position she held for over seven years. A brief exodus into the corporate marketing sphere proved that there is no better industry than the travel industry. Research and writing are two of Jeanette’s greatest passions, but she is always open to new challenges and different ways of doing things.